Honda recalls 438,000 cars for airbag hazard

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Honda announced it is expanding a previously announced recall to replace an airbag inflator in an additional 438,000 vehicles worldwide, including 379,000 in the United States.

In a statement posted on its Web site late Tuesday, Honda said the driver's airbag inflators in these certain vehicles may expand with too much pressure, which can cause the inflator casing to break and could result in injury or death.

The expanded recall includes 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic, Odyssey, CR-V, and selected 2002 Acura TL vehicles, the statement said. Honda said there have been 12 incidents related to the airbag inflator problem.

One Honda Pilot car and one Acura CL vehicle may also be affected, the spokesman said.

The original recall involving this issue was announced in November 2008 for 2001 and 2002 models of Accords and Civics as well as some 2002 model year Acura TL vehicles, a Honda spokesman told CNNMoney.com. It affected 3,940 U.S. vehicles, and 265 in Canada and Mexico.

Last summer, Honda added 510,150 cars to the recall worldwide, including 443,727 additional units in the United States.

The recall now affects a total of 952,118 vehicles, with more than 826,000 in the United States.

Although none of the reported problems occurred after July 2009, Honda said it was still expanding the recall because it could not be sure that the inflators in the aforementioned vehicles would work correctly.

Honda said it will notify affected customers by mail and phone with instructions on how to have their vehicles inspected and updated at an authorized dealer. The entire production of each of the models in question is not necessarily included in the recall.

Last month, Honda announced a separate recall of 646,000 2007 and 2008 Fit, City and Jazz models worldwide, after a fire hazard involving a power window switch resulted in a death in South Africa.